"This incisive assessment of the cultural and intellectual relationship between Christian Byzantium and the Fatimid caliphs offers striking new perspectives on the significance of Jerusalem and Athens, opening up the history of the Parthenon as a Christian cult centre alongside that of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is an important and highly original contribution to Mediterranean history." -- David Abulafia , Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History in the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, UK ‎ This remarkable book shows how the Parthenon of Athens, the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, and the Califate of Cairo came to be locked in an ideological confrontation which affected every fiber of their respective cultures on the eve of the Crusades. The unexpected interweaving of two adjacent faiths and two societies (Byzantium and Islam) has seldom been explored with such learning, zest and insight. -- Peter Brown , Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Princeton University, USA ‎ What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Quite a bit it turns out, as Teresa Shawcross shows in this tour-de-force of early medieval Mediterranean history. Through a study of the two show-case cities, we see that, far from representing incompatible and alien cultures, Fatimid Egypt and Macedonian Byzantium were inextricably bound together in discourses of political and religious competition that reflects their common roots in the Hellenistic Abrahamic ferment of the Mediterranean world. Bridging disciplines and linguistic and religious culture, Wisdom's House, Heaven's Gate is a model for how historians should approach the history of this complex and dynamic world. -- Brian A.

Catlos , Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA ‎ Before the arrival of Seljuk Turks and crusaders, the eastern Mediterranean was dominated by two superpowers, the Byzantine empire and Fatimid caliphate. In this masterful study, Shawcross traces the rivalry between their cultures, as they sought to appropriate each other's symbols and legitimacy, including monotheistic piety and Neoplatonic philosophy. Athens and Jerusalem became the flashpoints for this nexus of mutual, criss-crossing influences. The story is brilliantly told, much of it here for the first time. -- Anthony Kaldellis , Professor of Classics, University of Chicago, USA ‎ This book is a stimulating and original discussion of the thought world of the Eastern Mediterranean in the eleventh century. Breaking away from the traditional paradigm of mutual incomprehension, it uses the images of the cities of Jerusalem and Athens to show the cross-currents and similar concerns of two great religious traditions. In this lively and important work, Shawcross emphasises the importance of the Parthenon and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as of the image of the Imam, in the discourse of the time and the new religious ideas elaborated in Fatimid and Byzantine intellectual circles. -- Hugh Kennedy , Professor of Arabic, SOAS, University of London, UK ‎ Departing from Tertullian's lapidary distinctions between faith and reason, between Jerusalem and Athens, Shawcross' engaging and original book examines the Christianization of Hellas in the context of the political rivalry of Byzantium and the Fatimid Caliphate in the Middle Ages.

Describing in meticulous detail the intertwined worlds of Classical knowledge, Islam, and Christianity, the author provides an insightful guide to how religion and knowledge were coproduced in the eastern Mediterranean. This is a capacious and wonderful book. -- Teofilo F Ruiz , Distinguished Research Professor of History (Emeritus), UCLA, USA.